Race and Discrimination

1.      Racial and discrimination crisis have been a part of American people as well as people around the world. Discrimination, which is the unequal treatment between different categories of people, that is evident in various social institutions. For example, in the film, “Race to Execution,” African Americans faced discrimination in legal system such as in courts. The African Americans were considered the minorities, and minorities always face some sort of discrimination in my opinion. Other social institutions such as schools, college, and even work place we experience or have experienced some sort of segregation, which means separately different types or categories of people either physically or socially. In my experience of school, I remember there were many groups formed socially by students. The popular kids, the smart kids, and then there was me who didn’t belong to any of the groups. Maybe because I was not a part of such group I felt out of place at times in school. However, segregation is also experienced in our society such as high, middle, and low classes. Depending on which “class” a person lives, dresses, even eats that way.  Discrimination is still an issue that occurs not only racially depending on color but also within our society amongst people who are overweight, less good looking, and even in government. All these issues may not be considered extreme like it was in the past, however small issue’s still continue in our society. If we can do something to get rid of them our world would become a perfect place. However, even with great hopes, the word perfect is nonexistence but trying to get there can be possible.

Global Gender

CREA is a nonprofit organization originated in India and also in the United States that works together to strive for women’s human rights, violence against women, sexuality, and reproductive rights. It focuses on women from the South and promotes knowledge, information and scholarships. Their vision is to promote equality and a just world free of poverty, violence, discrimination through their organization. CREA especially focuses on women and young children of India and the South. Women’s lives in India have improved immensely since the ancient and the medieval period. Women now are treated equally since the Constitution of India was passed. Several feminist groups and non government organizations have improved their society and women rights in issues like rape, sexuality, and other human rights. Women participate in media, education, art, sports, politics, and much more. Actresses like Aishwarya Rai and politicians like Indira Gandhi are also praised greatly due to their achievements and status in society.  

Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is a major issue around the world; however, the United States is one of the transit and destination countries for human trafficking. In my opinion main reason for human trafficking relates to prostitution. Women are brought into the US from all over the world for example, South America and South East Asia for sexual purposes. As I was doing some research, I came across something shocking. That the United States government began monitoring trafficking in people and it mainly focused on trafficking women and girls for sexual purposes, basically prostitution. Recently it has been monitoring not only women but also men, children for forced labor and other purposes, as well as commercial sexual exploitation. Children are also used as construction workers, and in sweatshops.

The United States State Department has issued laws in order to ban or limit prostitution and human trafficking. They have granted millions of dollars to organizations that combat trafficking issues all over the world. Such programs help spread the information on dangers of human trafficking and protect those groups from abuse and violence. It also spreads knowledge of economic opportunities in order to recognize risks of being trafficked. The US has also assisted other countries and passed many policies and legislation's to outnumber such horrible problem.   

Crime and Racism or Privilege vs Equality?

It is believed by many people that discrimination amongst race and gender has been diminished by the Civil Rights Act. However in today’s society, I find that very hard to believe. After watching ABC’s 20/20 video about Alex Wood and Tyron Brown’s case with a personal experience that happened in my life, I believe that the racial and gender discrimination still exists. As mentioned in one of the videos, Alex Wood who was white and a son of a well known Reverend were well-off and had many connections with other famous people. Alex Wood was charged 10 years probation and was privileged to be free after committing a murder. On the other hand, Tyron Brown who came from a poor family background and had no famous connections in his community was also charged 10 year probation for pointing a gun and robbing whatever money they had without hurting them. He had later returned what he stole back to the owner.

            During probation time, both had additional punishment because they had broken the law again. Alex Wood was charged twice with possession of cocaine and other offenses due to his behavior. However, Tyron Brown was only caught smoking marijuana once and was sentenced to life. This was injustice to Brown because I believe the judge based his punishment from his poor background and who had no connection with anyone famous. Wood’s case should have been taken more seriously because he did take someone’s life and did continue to do wrong things while on probation.

 

I can relate to this is because one member of my family was charged guilty of doing something he did not do. Only because he was the only guy around at the time and the girl was white.  So the judge favored her rather than what really happened. He ended up paying $5000 so that the girl would drop the case.

Conformity and Ethics

The modern version of Milgram’s shock experiment describes it’s been more than 45 years and people have not changed their ways of being obedient under an authoritative figure. In search for more ethical experiment, Jerry Burger conducted the same experiment but with few differences. One of those differences compared to Milgram’s first experiment was the maximum number of shocks received was 150 volts instead of going all the way to 450 volts. The newer version of experiment also conducted the experiment with the participants and an accomplice to see if that would affect the participant’s behavior. Sadly, the participant’s behavior was not greatly affected but it stayed the same as before like they were only with the experimenter. For an ethical experiment, the experimenter for example the “teacher” was given an option of quitting the experiment whenever they felt the need to. Surprisingly the participant went on with the experiment until they were done asking questions. Behavior based on gender was also observed while watching the experiment. Because of the nervous laughs, shows women were more hesitant to go on with it than men. However that fact did not change the outcome of the experiment. Another difference conducted in this experiment was that Burger’s experiment had to take permission from American Psychological Association. In it a clinical psychologists screened the participants in order to see if they would have a negative effect of the procedure which did not happen in Milgrams experiment. Another difference was that participants were told three times during the experiment that they had an option of leaving while receiving the payment. In Milgram’s experiment that was also not the case, the participants were forced to go on. This study shows that even with few adjustments, people are continuing to follow what their authority tells them. Burger’s experiment proves that even in modern day society, people are obligated to do what they are told without doing what they consider is ethically right. 

Socialization

Critics often charge that television's portrayal of violent and sexual themes powerfully affects its viewers, especially children. How much of a role do you think TV plays in the socialization process? Does it affect everyone to the same extent? Post your positions in your blog and defend your positions.

As I was reading the text, I realized how true it is that media for example television affects children’s process of growing up and socialization. We all know that television is the greatest source for entertainment. For parents it’s the easy way out of parenting sometimes. When children become fussy, parents often turn to television to baby sit the children. Children learn way too much and way too fast like sexuality and violence. It definitely affects everyone because as we watch something on television, those ideas grows in a person’s mind. TV acts like a role model for the youth, it teaches them how to dress and speak etc. Youngsters are so engulfed by such media content because of video games and other media related activities that their level of physical and social interaction has decreased. Even though television offers a lot of information, some good and some bad, it has definitely caused people to change how they socialize in public.

In my opinion, what we watch on television transforms us, what we see, we like and then consequently we want. For example, if I like what an actress is wearing on television I tend to dress up like her. Another example is that when my younger cousin was 4 years old. She watched a teenage show on Disney Channel and she started talking and acting like the older kid on TV. After we watch something on TV I believe it affects our subconscious, that’s why when people watch a horror movie they tend to get nightmares especially children. I think children are more at risk from the negative effects of socialization through TV because they do not understand marketing and advertising. Adults are more capable of detecting the pressure advertising puts on the viewer. In general our great dependency on TV is not healthy for adults or for our children. In this day and age we can’t live without TV, but too much of anything is dangerous.